Icing & Sprinkles EVERYWHERE

Saturday, December 17th was a BUSY day at the Zoo!  I roused the Heathens out of bed "early" on a Saturday morning.  We had people to pick up and places to be!

First stop, picking up Noah Logan, Ili Grace, and Wyatt.  Turned out, Gertrude had spent the night at her house - I managed to pick up four kids instead of just three!  Second stop was to pick up Skinny Minnie.  By 8:45, I had a car full of 8 children (ages 13 to 3) and we were headed for breakfast with Santa.

Breakfast with Santa was great!  There was only one problem.  Santa's helper that day was Pappy.  As soon as the grandchildren heard his voice, their heads all snapped around and they narrowed their eyes at Santa.  Breakfast was finished with lots of sticky syrup for the pancakes and lots of suspicious looks at Santa.

While the younger 2 Heathens had final rehearsal for the Christmas pageant, I took the other 6 children to the grocery store to purchase more "decorations."  Although I had already been to the store, I knew I didn't have enough sprinkles, icing or "stuff" for them to put on their cookies.

Taking six children to the grocery store is interesting.  We went to the store where I normally shop with my three Heathens.  This time, I had twice as many kids and only 1 of them was mine.  After 20 minutes of shopping, we had Christmas M&Ms, marshmallows, sprinkles, and icing in multiple tubes and containers ready for checkout.  It was basically a big purchase of sugar in various forms.

We picked up the younger two Heathens and headed to the Zoo.  The kiddos all watched Rudolph while I made macaroni and cheese for lunch.  I thought water took forever to boil when there were three hungry Heathens.  It takes MUCH longer when there are 8 of the staring at the water in the pot!

Once fed, I separated the kiddos into two rooms for decorating.  The youngest three stayed in the kitchen, while the oldest five headed for the dining room.  Here are the kiddos with their favorite cookie they decorated:

Heathen #2

Skinny Minnie

Gertrude

Meatball

Ili Grace

Heathen #3

Heathen #1

Noah Logan

There were sprinkles and icing everywhere!  All things considered, the kiddos where unbelievably NEAT.  A quick wipe of the table and a swipe of the vacuum and everything was picked up!

The only casualty was a spilled glass of milk that found it's way into Skinny Minnie's lap.  She finished decorating in a pair of Heathen shorts while her jeans were in the washer.

Then (the best part), I packed up all the over-sugared kiddos, their cookie creations, and TOOK THEM HOME!